The Fellowship of Lifea Christian-based vegetarian group founded in 1973

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Letters - By J. M. Gilheany

Letter in the Anglican Society for the Welfare of Animals Bulletin (Spring 2010)

Letter in the Anglican Society for the Welfare of Animals Bulletin
(Spring 2010)

In response to your article 'Where are all the young people?' - I
decided to check-out the situation locally because of similar curiosity
over recent years.

I became involved in the secular sphere of animal rights campaigning
during 1987 (in my late teens) and ad hoc Christian activity by 1992. It
became increasingly easy, thereafter, to lose touch with secular
activity, 'on the ground' at any rate. Maybe this type of detachment
from the 'public face' of animal rights protests can become comfortable
wherever it tends to increase our influence within the Churches; as well
as among friends and colleagues who may be that much more prepared to
consider one ethical issue or another rather than an entire ideological
package.

There's been a street stall in central Cardiff for at least thirty
years and I've given it a somewhat guilty wide-berth over the past
twenty because there's only so much of one's life outside of the
workplace that may be considered 'campaigning time' by those of us that
lack the saintly dedication of the few. Many Church-focused activists
leave 'non-Christian' activity to non-Christians in the hope that
they'll hardly depend on our involvement and instead focus upon our own
daunting challenges, as specialised 'campaigners' (if that's even the
term for cultivating spiritual empathy towards other creatures.)

So what's changed since the 1980's, if the once thriving
Cardiff-based FAUNA (Friends of Animals Under Abuse) are representative
of the U.K. as a whole?

Well, there are no longer the monthly meetings (packed with
under-25's) which used to organise activists and introduce the public to
animal-related issues through talks, screenings and a strategic local
response to particular concerns. The criteria at any given meeting was
usually led by one of several upbeat campaigns from one of the national
societies (whose journals still contain regular action plans with free
literature) but it's only the membership of those societies that respond
today and the response may often be bleak.

For example, there is no longer a coach from South Wales to what was
then the near-mandatory 'World Day for Laboratory Animals' and the
seasoned activists to whom I spoke would be surprised if the same event
could attract 1000 protesters, nationally, today.

The SHAC demos may have taken-up the space left by the decline of
large-scale protest but campaigners have laterally abandoned the
strategy because of police restrictions on individual effectiveness and
indeed the sacrifice of individual time and potential which tends to
result from participation in a leaderless and conflicted mass.

On a more uplifting note; the League Against Cruel Sports recently
requested that their supporters turn-up at Waterstones branches to hear
a talk by a British bullfighter promoting his book and ask him awkward
questions afterwards. The notification was withdrawn after about 24
hours when the chain of stores cancelled the tour!

So it would take a general survey to reveal the actual state of the
animal protection movement in this country. There are certainly pockets
of energy and tactical focus but what most of us may envisage or
remember of the wider movement may well be figments of a bygone era.

I found myself at the FAUNA street stall for half an hour longer than
anticipated due to a visitation from one of the city centre evangelists
who declared that "animals have no rights" which - perhaps predictably -
led to a somewhat acrimonious dispute with one of the activists running
the stall. And this was particularly sad because it was so easy to
quietly confront this bloke with the implications of his theological
contempt for vegetarianism (and other forms of practical kindness) when
the stand contained dozens of leaflets that depicted scenes of hell upon
earth.

Many an archetypal Bible-bashing 'speciesist' may have much more
sympathy for abused animals than their minds have allowed them to
realise over the years and a single photograph with an appropriate plea
for reflection may unlock most hearts. Animal rights campaigners have
nothing to justify in a world which religion has largely ruined for
creation but recrimination should really be a last resort in seeking the
sense of humility which enables opponents to discuss issues of a
compassionate nature.

It has always seemed obvious to me that secular campaigners may be
used to dealing with the 'general public' but a large proportion of that
public are likely to dismiss supposedly 'non-Christian' values. I should
not have been too surprised at the FAUNA stalwarts' complete lack of
awareness of Christian advocacy on behalf of animals and a week later, I
brought a batch of Christian-veggie leaflets for 'under the counter'
distribution which were enthusiastically received.

We should really be on hand to assist the remaining but tireless
local street-groups throughout the country in their occasional
encounters with hostile Christians, if only to challenge their unsavoury
notion that Christian ethics and respect for animal life are somehow
separate concepts.